Fujitsu Forum Munich, November 07, 2017
– Fujitsu’s human-centric sensors are being deployed to help speed up the rehabilitation process for patients at a highly specialized Dutch clinic. A six-month pilot program at Sint Maartenskliniek in Nijmegen is leveraging advanced Fujitsu Internet of Things (IoT) wearables technology to help track the rehabilitation progress of 50 patients as they regain mobility.

Patients wear smart sensors that capture movement, balance and other vital signs data, which are uploaded to the cloud. Doctors at the Sint Maartenskliniek Gait Expertise Center in the Netherlands can remotely track patient progress as they recover.

The participants in the Fujitsu IoT pilot project are monitored around the clock as they recuperate, first in the clinic and then at home. Body sensors are periodically placed into a dock, and movement data is downloaded and synced with the cloud. Sint Maartenskliniek medics then access the data and remotely monitor patients’ progress. The six-month pilot, which began in October 2017, aims to achieve faster recovery times and better clinical outcomes as well as increase patient comfort during recuperation.

The Sint Maartenskliniek Gait Expertise Center helps patients with a variety of problems relating to balance and mobility. The clinic relies heavily on gait analysis, which tells them how effectively patients’ muscles work together as they move. This understanding allows the rehabilitation team both to identify the underlying cause of any problem and to monitor how patients are progressing during treatment.

New Fujitsu technology gives recovering patients new mobility
Patients wear portable movement sensors attached to ankles or wrists. These incorporate an accelerometer to provide very accurate three-dimensional movement measurements. Unlike traditional approaches, the clinic can monitor patients 24/7 regardless of where they are and can even track patients while they exercise – providing a wealth of valuable diagnostic data.

Cloud-connected under-bed sensors provide a detailed picture of sleeping habits and monitor vital signs including heart rate and respiration. This additional information helps give doctors an at-a-glance impression of a patient’s wellbeing and progress over a sustained period, rather than just snapshots of information from clinic visits.

Noël Keijsers, Senior Researcher at the Gait Expertise Center at Sint Maartenskliniek, comments: “We selected stroke and incomplete spinal cord injury patients as our target group for this pilot project, as a comprehensive and detailed picture of their wellbeing, and the ability to monitor their progress 24/7, will make a significant difference to the quality of care we can provide to them, ultimately helping them to learn to walk again more quickly. We expect that this solution will allow us to replace a large part of the Clinimetrics of gait performed by our physiotherapists. Furthermore, the new solution is changing the lives of patients in rehabilitation by allowing them to recuperate at home, while still ensuring that we are able to continuously track their progress.”

James Maynard, Offering Management Director, IoT & Innovation, Innovative IoT Business Unit at Fujitsu, says: “By working closely with the Sint Maartenskliniek team, we have been able to co-create a solution that is cost effective and easy to implement, as well as being unobtrusive. At its core, this new system is designed to be human-centric – it is based on wearable technology and helps enrich the lives of both the rehabilitation teams and their patients. The medical team has access to detailed information at their fingertips that enhances not only their understanding of patients’ conditions, but can also monitor their wellbeing 24/7. This puts patients on the road to recovery faster than ever before.”

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